A steam generator is conventionally constituted by a water tank including a filler duct and communicating with a distribution chamber via a water injection device, said chamber including an outlet orifice through which the steam created by heating the water in the tank escapes.
It is known that the lifetime of such steam appliances is limited by the formation of scale that results from the water in the tank evaporating, the scale accumulating at the inlet and outlet orifices of the steam-generating chamber. The greater the lime content of the water used, the shorter the lifetime of the appliance.
Present solutions to this problem posed by scale forming in steam generators are numerous, but none of them is satisfactory: pretreatment of the water or the use of demineralized water is expensive and with demineralized water it can sometimes require the use of special materials; regular washing out of the appliance constitutes a constraint that is poorly adapted to professional utilization; scale destruction by creating passages between the tank and the evaporation zone requires the use of mechanical devices that are complex, such as anti-scale rods; similarly, detecting scale accumulation by measuring the pressure of the fluid circulating through the generator requires sensors to be used, which sensors must be monitored continuously.